In this photo, Andy is trying to work out how he can take the copper cylinder home!

Outside the Galimard perfume factory, there were several copper/brass stills and retorts. We were surprised to see they're not bolted down, and the factory guide was amazed when we told her they would be stolen for scrap in England.

We went on the factory tour, choosing Galimard as there were no coaches parked outside. Fragonard is the other big manufacturer. It was interesting to see the old equipment, much of the glassware was the same as we used when we worked in labs, and there were lots of copper stills feeding into cooling coils, which Andy thought would be ideal for his solar water heating project.

The guide explained that perfumes are designed by a person known as a 'nose', who has the skill to blend 80-120 essential oils to create a unique perfume.

The tour ended in their shop where we were asked to identify the main constituents of 4 perfumes. Fruity perfumes are 'in' for women at the moment, and seaweed based ones for men. Andy couldn't smell most of them, and so he wasn't persuaded to buy, but I did treat myself!

Grasse itself is in a fold in the hills and has a microclimate that enables jasmine, roses, mimosa and various other perfumed flowers to be grown. It's also very steep, with 5 storey narrow apartment blocks lining the medieval cobbled streets. The underground car park was scary, very tight turns, low ceiling and I was convinced I would dent the car. I didn't, but I shall let Andy drive it out tomorrow.